This was the first book by Jodi Picoult I have read. I went into it with neutral expectations. While I enjoyed Diana's character at times, I don't think Picoult developed who she was enough as a person prior to the pandemic. I was so startled by the plot twist that it took away from Picoult's romantic writing. Writing a book that throws the reader right back into the beginning days of the COVID-19 pandemic is a risky move. I understand that Picoult wanted to write about this experience that many of us share, therefore it makes sense all of her Trump and modern day references, but they took away from the story.

I had been hearing friends rant and rave about this novel, so I was thrilled to be given an advanced copy. This book is thought-provoking and uncomfortable, seemingly hitting too close to home as it explores ideas of natural selection mirrored by the animal life at the Galapagos Islands as the world deals with a global pandemic similar to what we have been experiencing over the past couple years with COVID19. This book is another fantastic novel by Picoult, but it was gut-wrenching, as many of her books are. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for a copy of this book for an honest review.

This may be too close to home for some as we are still dealing with covid 19. It deals with what it is to be human, and the love, resilence, bravery and hope in the face of a global pandemic. Well written.

Wish You Were Here is a story about covid and when everything first started. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this but I'm really glad I did! There is a twist you will never see coming! I highly recommend this book!

Jodie Picoult, as always, created a novel that is emotional, moving, and ethically ambiguous. I thought she really illustrated what the beginning of the pandemic in the US felt like well, and I enjoyed the twist at the end. Would recommend.

Diana O’Toole is an art specialist in New York working at Sotheby’s, and living with her boyfriend Finn, a surgical resident. Life is on track and could not be more perfect, as they have planned a trip to the Galápagos right before her 30th birthday, until the pandemic hits New York hard. Diana and Finn make a decision to not let the cost of the trip go to complete waste, so Diana takes the trip on her own.

I am still in awe of what I have read, as a nurse who worked in the front lines. The medical language, descriptions of the treatments, and the daily goings-on in the hospital was captured so well in the story, I felt that I have relived the experience once again.

More than that, the huge twist in the end really shocked me to my core. The writing was intense, emotional, and quite extraordinary. The Galápagos experience that Diana went through was incredible and has definitely made that part of my bucket list.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It was truly incredible!

Audio Review: Marin Ireland is one of my top fave narrator and wow this was amazing. I got lost in the Galapagos with all the wonderful characters, it was hard to believe this was all done by the one and only Marin Ireland.

I absolutely love Jodi Picoult. Her work is always so progressive and well-researched. This book was timely and bold and necessary.

This is my first book by this author, though I’ve heard of her many times. Overall I felt it was a decent story, well written and worth reading. A word of warning to readers who may be sensitive to the topic, but this is about the Covid pandemic and contains much detail about Diane, the main characters hospitalization as well as other patients. You may or may not want to read even more on this topic than is thrown at you via all sorts of media daily. So the reader should be prepared for that.
A good part of the book talks about Diane’s trip to the Galápagos Islands. Without giving any spoilers, this is the part I ended liking the least. Diane has a boyfriend, Finn, who is a resident surgeon at a NYC hospital. He is dealing with Covid first hand and is also the one who helps her through her illness.
For readers of The Midnight Library, once again there are issues about the existence of “something” in between life and death. While the story is fiction, so much is reality from what we have all dealt with at some level the past two years and in that way it felt much different.

This book was tougher than most. Because the pandemic is still happening, this boom was raw even for Picoultbooks. Once again the author makes the reader feel empathy for all the various characters despite their flaws. her descriptions of living with Covid, as well as taking care of Covid patients would convince the strongest anti-vaxxers I believe. Kudos!

In typical, Jodi Piccolo fashion, she brings us a book that really pushes the envelope of your thought process and where the mind can. take you, a journey. Not only does she weave us an intense story about covid but she also gives us a travel journal of the Galapagos. I loved this book! It makes you wonder about all the possibilities!

I have no idea how to rate this book, nor how to review it. I did not see this happening. I can't tell you what happens, because that gives the whole story away. Picoult has well-developed characters and her descriptive talents make one feel they are there with Diana and Finn and Gabriel and all the others.

Diana's life is planned to the nth degree. What is it they say? We make plans and God laughs.

Outstanding and up-to-date read. Very Jodi Picoult. Loved it! Read it twice already. She sets the bar very high. She almost never fails to deliver. And this time she knocks it out of the park.

This story starts out intriguing because it is so real to so many people. Covid-19 struck our country like a Tsunami. Those who were old enough to remember that day, 3/13/19 know exactly where they were when the announcement that the shut down of our country was the only news on any TV station. For me, I left my 5th grade classroom that day not knowing that I wouldn’t return to that room for the rest of the year. 2019 and 2020 continued to get worse and worse. Jodi Picoult’s book Wish You We’re Here told a delicate tale of how Covid-19 affected everyday people on a daily basis.

The characters in the story were easy to relate to and represented the struggles of so many. I read furiously through the first 1/3. After Diana arrived in the Galapagos Islands and the story seemed to have shifted to a story about “finding her meaning in life” and a “love story” as she learned to adapt to island ways, I began to feel disappointed. Something about this story and most definitely because I love Picoult, made me forge on.

Part 2 shook me from my trance because I did NOT see that coming! Wow! Just WOW! I am so happy I continued reading. The second half of the book was just incredible. As Picoult has proven time and time again, life isn’t always the way it seems and events don’t always end happily or tied with a near bow. Picoult’s books are real, raw, important, and they are the stories that people need to hear.

If you started this book and felt a bit of a lull in the first half, don’t give up. You won’t be disappointed.

I was nervous to read a COVID book given that we're still in the pandemic AND this experience has been so traumatic for me, so please keep that in mind when reading this review. It was hard to suspend my own feelings about people's behavior during this time, which made me really frustrated with the characters in this book. So much of what they did or didn't do felt completely wrong knowing what we know now, and I just had a difficult time separating now from then. Maybe if I'd waited to read this in a year or two I would have felt differently, or maybe not. Tread lightly.

This book was a whirlwind and I have to say I was rooting for the romance that didn’t happen. I fell in love with the characters in the book and wanted to badly for there to be the happy ending I was hoping for. Having this book take place during Covid was interesting and probably too soon for my liking but curious to see if other books will start following this lead.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you net galley for the ARC. This book unfortunately fell flat for me despite an interesting premise. The first 50-100 pages were interesting but then it felt like a text book to me and the plot was very dull. I thought it would be more relatable since Picoult discussed the COVID epidemic but it was a lot of medical jargon that went over my head. The main character’s story when she traveled was almost the same every day with very little plot to it. It was very hard to finish. I was disappointed with this book as with her last book, the research she does is very in depth but her books are starting to feel like reading history text books.

I usually enjoy Jodi Picoult, but this was just an okay read for me. The beginning was slow, but the second half had some interesting turns and twists. I’ll definitely recommend this to anyone I know who is a patient reader. Thank y NetGalley for this advanced copy!

Diana O’Toole is in a good place in her life. She’s got a great job, a successful boyfriend, and she’s anticipating a proposal during an upcoming getaway to the Galapagos islands. According to Diana, everything is on track for the benchmark of her 30th birthday. Then Covid-19 hits and because her boyfriend is a surgical resident, he's obligated to stay behind and urges Diana to go to Galapagos without him.

Because this book is about Covid-19, one could assume that it had to be written recently and quickly. There are some areas of the book where you can feel that the story is rushed. I don’t think I knew this book was about Covid-19 before I received the ARC, but I can see it being “too soon” for some folks.

There is a huge twist in about the middle of the book which separates the book into two parts. I can only describe this twist as whiplash and it will make you rethink everything in the first half. We follow Diana as she navigates these two parts in different ways. Diana is an interesting character, and I really couldn’t decide if I liked her or not.

It is hard to talk about this book without giving away the twist, but it makes for interesting conversation. While the Covid-19 aspect of this book is heavily researched and written about in a relative way, I found the implications of Diana’s specific situation the most fascinating part of the book. I was not expecting the direction this story went or the ending.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
#NetGalley #Ballantine #JodiPicoult #WishYouWereHere

Diana O’Toole is ready to begin her perfect life, all according to her self-imposed plan. Married by thirty, kids before thirty-five, and continuous career advancement in the art world. Then…a pandemic hits and ruins the vacation on which she was sure her physician boyfriend was to propose.
There have been a few novels published since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Honestly, I was worried about reading this being that we are still dealing with it. In that vein, if you are in a position in which you aren’t ready to read about the trauma that we have all been through with the pandemic, then I advise you to read this title at a later time. I was expecting to be slightly annoyed with this book because that’s how I feel about the pandemic. I should have known better than to doubt Ms. Picoult. Her characters and writing are as compelling and vivid as ever. Dana is as relatable as any of us. We have all been changed by the experience of being quarantined for so long as well as the aftermath of the quarantine. Ms. Picoult is a very skilled writer. The beginning of this book was a wonderful experience. The main character is stranded on the Galapagos Islands for a big chunk of the book. I enjoyed reading about the animals that are native there as well as the vivid scenery.
The second half of the book tended to drag a little bit. Occasionally I felt inundated in information, almost as if the story had been forgotten in favor of research notes.
Overall, I deeply appreciated this emotional book and I’ll think twice before doubting Jodi Picoult again.

Plot: Diana has her life planned out perfectly, and is getting ready for a vacation in the Galapagos with her soon-to-be-fiancé Finn when Covid hits New York City. Finn, a doctor, isn’t able to leave, so Diana reluctantly goes without him. But Covid quickly spreads across the globe, and she finds herself stuck on the island and uses her time in isolation to examine her own evolution.

Hooooo boy. This book. Jodi Picoult has written another intimately-researched novel, and although Diana is a complicated character and often difficult to love (especially with the hindsight we now have of this time), her reactions to the pandemic felt genuine. True to her claim back in October 2020 (swipe for reference), I do think Picoult found a really interesting way to write about Covid. I cannot believe this book was written, edited and published in one year; I think some day it will be a historical reference of what spring 2020 was like. If you’re a lover of Jodi Picoult and ready to read about Covid (and have dreams of traveling to the tropics) – pick this up. If you have any doubt about whether you’re ready – I recommend waiting.

I, personally, was not ready for this book, and after bingeing the first 80% in two days, had to take a break. While Diana is in the Galapagos, Finn writes her Emails describing his time caring for Covid patients in NYC. As someone who has many loved ones who are healthcare professionals (including my husband), these sections were difficult to read and sent me into a pretty deep spiral of emotion. That being said, I do think Picoult did a fantastic job writing these sections. They are a reminder of what our essential workers went through—are STILL going through (please get vaccinated!). If you’re a HCP reading this – thank you ♥️